Archive for March 30, 2012

I’ve been playing around and trying out all the new toys we’ve gotten with both Update 6 and the first patch for update 6 and I am overall VERY happy with the class and how it plays.

To do a little re-cap, if you’re wondering what’s supposed to be fixed with that first patch Orion summed it up pretty well on the forums. I think the only remaining major item is the bug with the Terrible Visage trait which puts us in threat easy-mode. The other issue that I haven’t fully checked out is with our stun immunity, some believe it should prevent knock-downs, but lots of time in the Roots of Fangorn instance is showing otherwise. I seem to remember something regarding this but can’t find anything nor remember either way.

For those trying to catch up on what all the new gambits do, a new Gambit Chart has surfaced on the forums and it does a good job of showing the new order of achievement and how things change in Assailment particularly. Another good forum resource is Asto’s Gambit Compendium with good descriptions of each gambit in each stance. Finally if you’re trying to figure out what the deal is with all the legacy’s, there’s a good forum post for that as well. There’s also some other good links in the post I made previously.

Overall, I’m still in the process of digesting all these changes myself and am trying to figure out all the new little tricks and tips. I do find myself doing some stance dancing, and have keys mapped for the stances to make switching easier. Primarily it is either working with Assailment while in groups, then to Determination if I need to tank or Recklessness to Determination if I pull a few too many mobs However, the new AoE leeches work VERY well with Recklessness as I find myself having some real fun in some of the areas with lots of mobs.

As for group and raid tanking, for the most part I’m ok with holding agro but I do find myself reverting back to the PB/Aggression rotation, which doesn’t work quite as well. I have grouped with some folks with maxed out First Agers, and they have pulled things off after big crits, but I can pull it right back pretty quickly. I’m not sure I’ve found a good and quick agro catch-up although, Spear of Virtue seems to work pretty well and is somewhat quick. I’m also finding that I’m using Potency MUCH more to store gambits for future use. The two main two I’ve used are either an interrupt or big threat gambit.

Other than that, I’m still working on getting my gear up to snuff, and I’m just shy of 11K morale but I think my biggest issue Is dealing with Knockdowns. I’m hoping I was just doing it wrong and my gambit was just poorly timed, but there’s a chance that could be another bug.

What have you all found while either playing your Wardens or grouping with them?